On Saturday, controversial Congress leader Salman Nizami, who has a history of peddling anti-India propaganda on social media platforms, took to Twitter to spread misinformation by attempting to give a communal spin to an incident that occurred in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh.
Taking to Twitter, the Congress leader claimed that a 32-year-old person identified as Basheed Khan was tied to a tree and beaten for hours by a mob in Bareilly. Nizami went on to allege that the BJP government had given a free rein to torture and kill Muslims at will in the state.
Basheed Khan, 32 was tied to a tree & beaten for hours by mob in bareilly, UP dies of his injuries. Is this is the New India that the govt claims? Mobs given free rein by the BJP Govt to torture & kill Muslims at will? No accountability or rule of law? pic.twitter.com/wkeIUj459V
— Salman Nizami (@SalmanNizami_) September 5, 2020
Through his tweet, Salman Nizami went on to insinuate that the person identified as Basheed Khan was killed by the mob because of his religion.
Following Nizami, several other social media users took to Twitter to peddle a similar misinformation to give it a communal angle saying that the person was killed by a mob after they had realised that he was a Muslim.
A social media user named Syed Rafi, joining the likes of Nizami, twisted facts pertaining to the case to claim that the person Basheed Khan was killed by a ‘Hindu mob’. Communalising the fateful incident, Rafi declared that there will not be any convictions in this case.
Mark My words, There won’t be any convictions in this case. SSP Statement also indicates the same.
— Syed Rafi – నేను తెలుగు ‘వాడి’ని. (@syedrafi) September 5, 2020
Basid Khan is the Victim who was killed by Hindu Mob.
Kya ab iss desh ke Hindu ko, kisi muslim ko maarne ki bhi aazadi nahi ?#HinduKhatreMeinHain https://t.co/ovwqDUgFNX
One social media user said that Muslims and Dalits are being killed in the name of cow or suspicious of theft.
This Video is from Aonla Bareilly Up
— faizan (@faizan0008) September 4, 2020
A Man Name Bashid Khan has been Lynched By Mob on Suspicious of theft
Mob Violence Cases Raising in India Day by Day Bcz No Strict taken by Gov
Sometime in the Name of Cow, Suspicious of theft or for Being Muslim or Dalit@IndiasMuslims pic.twitter.com/wyER0ERc76
Another social media user said that the mob lynchings have become the new normal in India.
#MobLynchings becoming the new normal in India.
— Tamim Akhtar (@and_tamim) September 5, 2020
In Aonla town of UP’s Bareilly.
This is a lynching of humanity, democracy, liberty, law and order if people don’t understand this then wait for your turn and wait for worst to come..
Horrible !! Arrest the culprits#MobViolence pic.twitter.com/Q3q7MpOjQX
Fact Check
The Congress leader Salman Nizami’s claim that the person Basheed Khan was killed because he was a Muslim is untrue.
According to the reports, the 32-year-old man Basheed Khan died after he was allegedly tied to a tree and thrashed by a mob on suspicion of theft at a village in Bareilly district of Uttar Pradesh on Thursday night.
Later, it was found that the deceased man, identified as Basheed Khan, was not a thief, but a drunkard. A security guard suspected Khan to be a thief and had caught him on Thursday night. The crowd gathered at the spot and beat him up on the suspicion of being a thief. Later, he was handed over to the police.
Reportedly, the police had, in fact, let the alleged thief go as nobody had formally lodged a complaint against him. Khan succumbed to his injuries at a local hospital after his family admitted him for treatment. Basheed Khan died due to internal bleeding.
Contrary to the claims of Nizami and other social media users, there is no communal angle to the incident as the villagers had only acted against Khan after suspecting him to be a thief and not because he was a Muslim. The villagers had also handed the alleged thief to the local police to initiate a legal action.
